Notting Hill Carnival 2006

Pictures from today's Notting Hill Carnival down in West London. For last year's Carnival click here.











--



















































Technorati tags: Notting Hill Notting Hill Carnival London Party Parade

Notting Hill Carnival guide

Europe's biggest street festival, Notting Hill Carnival, begins tomorrow with Children's Day. And it is going to be fun (as long as the clouds hold up).



Part of the Tube network will be closed over the weekend due to 'engineering works' so expect delays and crowd. There is a rumour that airport style security detectors will be implemented in Tube stations, making the delays much worse. Visitors, best plan your journey before leaving! Download Metro onto your mobiles, but do pay attention to which part of the networks will be closed.

I will only be attending the Monday's 'adult' event. I have already cleared up my memory cards for use on my digital compact. I might nip out to Jessops to get a spare battery today (I wish it took standard AAs). So, bring some cash (personally I wouldn't bring my wallet on the day and keep spare cash in different pockets), a map and a mobile phone (although it is near useless within the parade). Do some kind of waterproof jacket, but try not to bring a full-size brolly!

Try not to get ripped off. And do enjoy yourself!

Technorati tags: Notting Hill Notting Hill Carnival London Party Parade

MTB Bike Ride: Foredown to Devil's Dyke

What a hectic week! I can't tell you what happened, but it has been one crazy week. It is the bank holiday weekend and yesterday I decided to trotted down to Brighton. I will be back in London on Monday for the Notting Hill carnival anyway. Hopefully it won't rain. It has been raining for the past two weeks. Bloody British weather.

So we went down to Portslade yesterday evening. The sun was almost out and we decided to make use of whatever sun there was left. We wanted to do the circular route in the South Downs near Devil's Dyke. To get there we took our normal route on the promenade down the seafront, and through Hove first before making our way uphill towards Mile Oak (you can basically follow the No. 1 bus from Brighton center). Connect at Mill Lane and cycle north until the road becomes Foredown Road.

The road is now an off-road public byway. Be careful as farmers also use their vehicles on this road. We crossed the bridge (over the A27) ahead and turned left uphill. If you want to, you can also continue downhill towards a barn where horses are apparently trained.





We cycled uphill towards Mount Zion (400 feet) and is surrounded by farm animals, mainly cows and horses. The off-road here is messy. Because I haven't received my helmet yet from Evans, I tried not cycle too fast or do anything stupid. It was a quiet day and occasionally we met the odd jogger and walkers.







After the tricky off-road we arrived at the gate that takes up to the South Downs circular walk bridleway. This was the route we were planning to do when we decided to cycle as we were hoping to see some Dew Ponds.



Anyway we continued uphill until we reached Fulking Hill (675 feet). We had a little accident here when I accidentally crashed into Jenni from the back.



The view here from Devil's Dyke is amazing, especially with the usual paragliders. From here we had a clear view of the Sussex's South Downs and The Weald.












By then the sun has started setting and it was pretty late. Without proper lights (our lights are only suitable for urban use) we weren't going anywhere so we decided to head back through the rough cycle lane by Devil's Dyke road all the way down into Seven Dials. It was mainly downhill.



By the time we reached Brighton it was already 8.30pm. We cycled down to the seafront and had dinner at Malay House. By the time we got back at Jenni's we had done between 18 to 19 miles of cycling. Of those 5.5 miles were off-road.

Technorati tags: MTB Cycling Brighton South Downs South Downs Way Devil's Dyke Foredown Trails

Streaking a crowd pleasing stunt? You betcha!

I was just going through my picture collections, sorting out the junk from the rest, when I happened on this year's Wimbledon collection. Ah, it was a fun time. But what was even funnier was the reaction of the crowd when the streaker (NSFW) interrupted the dull match between Sharapova and Dementieva. Check the cropped pictures below:





Plus a press photograph we found on the web. Ah, the dedication I had in order capture something for my blog readers...



We should have more of this. Anything to keep the crowd excited!

Technorati tags: Wimbledon London Wimbledon 2006 Tennis Maria Sharapova Sharapova Streaker

Bike Ride: Brighton to Lewes (via Ovingdean, Woodingdean & South Downs Way)

It's another weekend! We went to Lewes (unintentionally) through another route. We wanted to take a circular route from Jenni's place down to the seafront, along the cycle route (2) towards Ovingdean and then onwards on Falmer Road to University of Sussex and then back down Lewes Road to her place.

We left at 3.50pm. It was an okay ride, at least up to Ovingdean when we had to climb up a massive road hill (Ovingdean Road) and connected to Falmer Road. Right here a bloody bee-like creature bit Jennifer but she survived. We continued up north Falmer Hill and reached Woodingdean. It was then a 1 mile climb another massive massive hill. This is the toughest road hill I have ever tackled. We finally arrived at Drove Road where we found the public bridleway (Drove Avenue) towards a hill called Newmarket Hill. The peak of Newmarket Hill is 646 feet above sea level (remember Brighton sea front from where we began is about 15 feet above sea level).

We entered the South Downs Way after a while, where we continued past a nature reserve (Castle Hill). We will check Castle Hill the next time we come down. The view over the chalk grasslands is lovely as is the view of the farms right next to it. We finally reached Kingston, a small village south west of Lewes where we continued up towards Lewes on Kingston Road. Roughly 2 1/2 hour later we arrived at Jennifer's mates house nearby Lewes station.

This was one of the most enjoyable trail I had since getting the new bike. Off-roading is so much fun and I learnt that my bike is better at off-roading than Jenni's Scott (which seemed to be better on-road). If the weather is similar to today's, we may do the Falmer route tomorrow (South Downs through Stanmer Park and Ditchling Beacon).

Total: 15 miles including excursions (roughly 3.3 miles off-road)

Brighton Marina:



Ovingdean:





Woodingdean peak looking south towards Ovingdean:



The view from Drove Road, Woodingdean:









Entering the South Downs way:













Castle Hill nature reserve:















Lewes town is just a few miles away:



Lots of bunnies down this valley:







On the train back from Lewes:



Technorati tags: MTB Cycling Brighton South Downs South Downs Way Lewes Trekking Trails